‘Excellent third week,’ said Odile Pouliquen-Young, ‘building on the previous conflict workshop.’

Garry Winterton agreed. ‘Another enjoyable workshop which has forced me to consider how to construct my character relationships.’

The workshop involved participants establishing a character web in their story by determining each major characters’ story function and archetype, then individualising each character by creating unique values that opposed the other characters’ beliefs. Participants relished the range and depth of material covered.

‘I most enjoyed thinking about different character archetypes and combinations and shadow sides of these archetypes,’ said Anne Forbes.

‘The discussion about character revelations was what I enjoyed most,’ said Garry, ‘and I found it has forced me to think about planning.’

‘It was very detailed and good to have the methods explained,’ said Odile.

Once more, the exercises were the highlight of the workshop.

‘I found the exercises to be particularly helpful for developing a character web,’ said Garry.

‘They made me think more about conflict between characters and particularly about multiple conflict and how characters can be more complex combinations of archetypes,’ said Anne.

The course participants have now established the basics of their stories and are well on their way to building upon it in the following sessions. During the fourth session, they will look at Extracting a Potent Theme from the material they have already established.